Promo Demo

Jasad's demo is another blind purchase I made out of the blue one day (who says no to getting into a new band for five bucks? Well, maybe a lot of people...not the point), and coincidentally they're another one of those Southeast Asian brutal death metal bands. When I discovered this, I was a bit surprised - this band isn't much like its regional peers.

What I mean by this can be figured out seconds into Jasad's first song on this two-track demo. All these Indonesian and Filipino and Malaysian brutal death metal bands are known for two things: the strangely suppressed production, and the slow, nonstop chugging slams. Jasad, here, have only nailed half the formula. Where are the slams? Instead we get this...melody. Ew. Of course, I'm kidding: although Jasad use quite a bit of melody alongside the couple of slams throughout this release, they use it well. The riffs are catchy as far as brutal death metal goes (if not leaning just a bit too close towards melodic death metal for my tastes at times), and to offset the melody the listener gets plenty of normal chugging riffs sped up. The whole formula balances out quite well altogether. Note, however, that the riffs are not spectacular - this isn't a release that will result in you humming the melody in your head hours after you hear it.

The vocals are a weak part of this release. Perhaps the vocalist isn't loud enough, as the vocals sound rather weak, given their dominating place in this demo's production. Some of his growls barely come above whispering level, and his gutturals sometimes rape the listener's ears. Drum-wise, it's all typical slam - blast when the band isn't playing a slam, play a basic drum beat over a blasting double-bass pedal when they are.

Though the upcoming full-length these two songs are taken from is unlikely to be mind-blowingly great, Jasad do a good job of at least trying to put something new in the mix when it comes to Southeast Asian BDM. It's not as memorable as it could have been, and it could have benefitted from a few more jam sessions. So check out this promo if you're looking for some Asian-style BDM that maintains a faster tempo than "dun, dun, dun-dun-dun", but don't get me wrong - if these guys were trying to reinvent the wheel, they haven't made much progress for now.